Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Will Anyone Read Your Proposal?

By Michael W. McLaughlin

Sometimes I think every consulting proposal should include a bright red label warning: Persistent drowsiness is a known side effect of reading this.

Not long ago, a consultant wrote to ask me how to make proposals come alive, especially in highly competitive bidding situations. My answer was simple: Write for the first reader and the last reader of each proposal. Otherwise, you’re likely to lull your readers to sleep and find yourself without a sale.

Most Proposals Are D.O.A.

At a meeting with a prospective client, I spotted a rather large mound of spiral-bound proposals on the credenza. I asked if the client had read them yet. “No, and I won’t, either. Most are just too hard to wade through. If anything, I’ll skim them.”

Pondering the hundreds of hours that people had poured into those proposals, I wondered if the authors would do anything differently if they knew the fate of all that hard work.

Now it’s true that consultants often have to create proposals in a big hurry. Once they commit to seeking outside help, most clients are anxious to receive a proposal. In response to crunch time, some writers force pre-fabricated language into their proposals. Too often, though, what’s easy for the author to write is so painful for clients to read that they don’t.

Fortunately, many consultants now recognize that weighing down a proposal with jargon and buzzwords results in ambiguity about the project objectives, scope, and anticipated results. The few jargon-laden proposals that sneak through the client’s selection process often need extensive rework before a project can be launched.

Consultants also seem to be getting the hang of beginning proposals with a discussion of the client’s needs and ending with a recitation of the consultant’s credentials—instead of the other way around.

Quack, Quack, Quack

What’s often missing from consulting proposals is recognition of who the reader is. If you want to create a responsive and winning proposal, write with specific people firmly in mind—not the generic “client.”

read more: http://mindshareconsulting.com/will-anyone-read-your-proposal/

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